Celebrating the Successes of Dispatch
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When I was a 911 director, I sat in on many interviews for candidates wanting to be hired as dispatchers. One of the questions we always asked of them was “Why do you want to work here?” You could probably guess the most common answer to that question: “Because I want to make a difference.” Many explanations for their wanting to make a difference followed, but the truth is that 100 percent of people in emergency services are there to make a difference. And we need to remember this common motivation. When you make a difference in someone’s life, be proud of it. Every time. Each day.
When I was an EMT, I remember arriving first on the scene of a wreck because it happened not far from my house. The patient was sitting in a mini-van with a family who happened to stop and help. The patient was a young man, maybe 20 years old. He complained of neck pain but he had walked to the van and needed no help to get in. Finding no obvious injuries, I held C-spine until the ambulance showed up. When we were transferring him to a backboard, which was protocol for a rollover, I felt his head position get stuck for a split second and I stopped everyone, made some careful adjustments, and we completed the backboarding procedure.
A few weeks later, the sheriff brought a man into my office. “Kerry was on the call,” he told the man.
“I just wanted to thank you,” the man said. “My son had a cervical vertebrae that the doctor said was exploded. He could have been paralyzed if your crew didn’t handle him properly. I wanted to stop and personally thank each of you.”
I was able to respond to so few EMS calls, I automatically thought that I wasn’t on the call. I even asked where it happened and then assured him that I wasn’t there. I told him that I was glad his son was going to be fine.
It was the sheriff who later told me exactly which call it was. So much goes on in emergency services that my mind wasn’t thinking that far back. I missed the opportunity to celebrate my success. To celebrate the fact that I had made a difference in that person’s life. Instead, I dismissed the praise of a grateful parent, when I should have rejoiced with him.
Dispatch can be a unique place, not often associated with celebrating each other’s successes. This shouldn’t be the case. Of course, many dispatchers don’t like to be recognized in a big public display. I struggled with this sometimes when EMS or law enforcement wanted to recognize dispatchers when they saved the life of a citizen or provided assistance to emergency personnel which resulted in a successful outcome. And recognition does not need to be public for these dispatchers. But it still needs to happen. There is nothing wrong with asking a trainee how they would like to be recognized. And then review their preferences at every performance review.
It is also easy for veteran dispatchers, or those who are just plain burned out, to gloss over their own accomplishments, or to downplay the success of new dispatchers. This job changes people, and not always for the better, so start your recruits off on the right foot. A new dispatcher gets one chance for those first-time calls that other dispatchers in the room have taken daily for years. Remember all those firsts? The first fire call. The first MVA. The first chest pain call. The first CPR call. These all need to be commemorated. Imagine how a new dispatcher would feel if co-workers brought a cupcake with a candle in it with “1st 911 Call” written on it. Welcoming new people into the team isn’t that hard to do.
What about the veteran dispatchers? How many have helped someone escape a burning building? Or stayed on the line with a suicidal caller and talked them out of completing their plan to end their life? Or helped keep a domestic violence victim safe when they were hiding in the dark? Or walked in the door onto the dispatch floor after ten straight years of service to the emergency services community? The reasons behind the recognition may be different, but the need is the same. Recognizing the impact of these veteran dispatchers should not be delegated to annual awards on plaques. Imagine what it would feel like to have a pizza party in honor of a call that you handled.
So much of what happens in dispatch is about tragedy. It’s about something negative that goes on in the community. This is the exact reason why we need to find those moments we can celebrate. Allow yourself to be proud of what you’ve done today, don’t dismiss a co-worker who compliments how you handled a call. Remember, “Thank you,” or “Thank you for noticing,” are appropriate answers when someone recognizes your accomplishment. The “I was just doing my job” answer dismisses the person who brings you the compliment and at the same time, it sends yourself the message that what you do has little meaning. Instead, try asking them why they thought you handled things well: you may learn something about your abilities that you weren’t consciously aware of. Because making a difference at 911 isn’t only about sending help when it’s needed most. It’s also about making a difference for yourself and for those you work beside.
Recently, Equature released a podcast and a virtual webinar featuring Kris Inman from The Healthy Dispatcher. Don’t miss these episodes filled with Kris’s experiences and knowledge on how you can make a constructive impact on the culture and positivity level in your center.
Written By: Cherie Bartram
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